In mid-December, a case of H5N1 (avian influenza) in Louisiana was reported as the first instance of severe illness linked to the virus in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now sequenced the H5N1 virus in specimens collected from the patient in Louisiana who became severely ill and compared them to other H5N1 sequences from dairy cows, birds, poultry, and previous human cases. After studying this genetic analysis, researchers believe that the mutations found in the specimens from the Louisiana patient may enable the virus to bind to cells in the upper respiratory tract more easily while driving greater transmission of H5N1. According to CDC, the results suggest the virus changes emerged during viral replication in the patient after infection.
Symptoms and recovery: The total number of human cases in the United States has now reached 66, as of December 27, 2024, and other than the 1 Louisiana case, others who were infected are experiencing mild symptoms and report recovering after receiving antiviral drugs. Even so, the risk of a pandemic related to the current outbreak of avian influenza is still quite low, according to the CDC.